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Jobs you did after school and Saturdays.

I worked in the school summer holidays as a labourer for a builder who was extending Mr. Jones's ironmongers shop in Tame Road Witton.
Saving hard to buy a Beatles type suit, you will recall the one without the jacket collar.
Only to discover to my utter dismay that when they appeared on the Royal Variety Show they were wearing jackets with velvet collars.
I didn't wear my suit again it was right out of fashion.
 
Yes I worked on many Bryants Sites even did the electrics at there depot in Doris Rd Bordesley Green all i can remember was a very cold winter i used to ride my bike across the tip at the back one morning it had snowed all night and when i got to the tip the path had disappeared and i had to carry my bike i arrived 10 minutes late and was told to go home and come back tomorrow at the right time. Dek
 
That was normal in those days my dad was a site clerk for Wates and they did the same before I joined the army I did a bit of steel fixing for the Michaligik Bros on the new Birmingham Mail site in steelhouse lane and it was good money then £25 per day (1962) although you worked for it but any bad time keeping off you were sent home to loose a days pay.
paul
 
paul stacey said:
That was normal in those days my dad was a site clerk for Wates and they did the same before I joined the army I did a bit of steel fixing for the Michaligik Bros on the new Birmingham Mail site in steelhouse lane and it was good money then £25 per day (1962) although you worked for it but any bad time keeping off you were sent home to loose a days pay.
paul
Click to expand...

My God, i for sure would not have been late for that job, i started work as a Pewtersmith in 1966 and my wages were £4.00 A WEEK !! My future wife started at the same time and earned 2 bob a week more.
 
In 1968 I started work at Metro Cammell in Washwood Heath as a trainee tracer and earnt 4 guineas a week. I still have the letter offering me the job. I had to catch two buses to get there and that cost about £1 so there wasn't much left when I paid my keep. Anne
 
Its true what you say, it was mega money for the time, the steel fixing industry at this time was mostly run by the Poles in Birmingham as my dad had been at Monte Casino with the Polish Forces and knew quite a few from the Polish ex-servicemens club "The DOM POLSKA" in Gravely Hill, Erdington I got a job not easy to break into, if English mainly Poles/Irish, you had to learn to read Bending schedules and read blue prints spent days in the frost carring huge bundles of steel reinforcing rods up flights of stairs or standing by a bending bench making cages for coloums. all the older guys had cars like MGB's, Westminsters , Metropolitans, Rapiers quite expensive in there day and were among the highest earners in the building trade, next to Plasterers and Brickies. withovertime the older men could earn £400 a week and did in the early sixtys when the weekly pay was about £8.00 a week.
paul
 
Wow thats incredible, £400 a week in 1965 is the equivalent to £5,770 a week today. I wish i could have got into that work.No wonder they kept it a closed shop. Max
 
I had a paper round in lea hall road beals shop.
Then i used to help the co-op milkman met hin in eddies cafe
ray chatterley nice big jolly chap,
then i helped our baker wilsons mothers pride,(derek taylor)
and then i worked with a lad at school we used to drive a horse and (wally,s farm)
cart saterdays and sundays collecting pig swill round garretts grn radleys and the like
on a sunday it was shard end kings hurst.....terry fryer where are you now..happy days
 
I helped out at the local Greengrocers shop owned by a neighbour as a teenager. I used to deliver the groceries locally - well you couldn't expect the ' retired persons ' to carry home a 56lb bag of spuds now could you. - and me being a stapping lad. I remember that at Christmas you made far more in tips / christmas box that you did in wages. I memory serves, I got 25p a day during the week after school and a pound on Saturdays for just over an hours work . I also have fond memories of one 'old dear' , she always had a toffee or mint imperial for me whenever or whatever I delivered her - happy days.
Why was it the older generation always used to have a bag of mint imperials to hand ?
 
Dek that's what I did with my uncle go round with the pony and trap collecting the pig bins to put in the pig swill to feed his pigs. That was round Handsworth and Perry Barr. Used to collect from the dog track too and Fred cut the long grass there and when dry we collected it and stored it to feed Prince in the winter. I used to get to ride Prince anytime I wanted and helped out with the animals for free. Jean.
 
I used to work at a greengrocers on Friday evenings and Saturdays, then for the same farmer at his farm shop on a Sunday, used to get 4.50 a week, thought I was rich!!!and mom used to get the seconds or leftover veg and salad, so she was happy too :) Happy days, til I went to do my nurse training for the princely sum of 72 pounds per month!
 
Used to work for Boots the Chemist in Erdington. For a Saturday I got £2.00. I also worked more days in the holiday. I started the Saturday job when I was 16. I loved working there. I think we got satff discount of 17.5%. I started out on the cosmetics counter, then was 'promoted' to pharmaceuticals. In those days the pharmaceuticals side was referred to as the drugs counter. We wore plain white nylon overalls, like a hospital doctor's coat, and had 'porters' to carry stock for us from the storeroom. I loved doing the job of stocking up, set loose amongst all those potions and lotions! ! Happy days. Viv.
 
When I was about 12 I had a Saturday job with the Co-Op butchers at the bottom of Wheelwright Rd. The shop is just out of this picture on the left.
Wheelwright Rd 2.4.1964.jpg

The best bit was receiving the delivery of fresh (dead) chickens first thing and cleaning them ready for sale. I had to slice around the base of the necks and pull off the head and neck skin, chop of the boney part of the neck and clean out the giblets and put them all in a bag and shove them back up! I won't tell you what the butcher used to do with the biggest neck when certain regular ladies came in the shop!
The worst bit was at the end of the day when I had to clean the wooden chopping blocks with a large metal-toothed brush like thing. Bloomin' hard work!
 
My favourite Saturday job was working in the Evening Despatch offices. I was a "Gofer" for the sports sub editors. I started at 12 noon a worked until the "pink un" hit the streets at around 5pm. There were about 10 sub editors in the office and by 5pm we were knee deep in discarded paper. I was at their beck and call. Rushing to the photo section for a picture of a goal scorer or century maker. Down to type setting with a report on Villa v Blues two minutes before the presses started to roll which made me very unpopular with the printers.
Mind you, the canteen made the best toast on the planet, I can still taste it know.
 
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